A Child’s Birthright
I believe that it ought to be a child’s birthright to thrive in this world. And walk towards his/her/their destiny in this lifetime with a strong, healthy body and a clear mind. Every parent dreams of this being so.
However, when last I checked, (about an hour ago) the CDC reports that one in 36 children is currently being identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the United States. It occurs across all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups. During 2009-2017, 1 in 6 children aged 3-17 years was diagnosed with a developmental disability as reported by parents. Data from 2016-2019 indicates that 9.4% of children aged 3-17 in the US were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, a common diagnosis alongside other mental health conditions such as ADHD, behavior problems and depression. Post-pandemic data will undoubtedly reflect much higher levels of all of these diagnoses. I suspect that it will be staggering how these conditions are rising in prevalence.
What is going on? I know from firsthand experience that these numbers don’t lie. I’ve been a schoolteacher for over 20 years. I’ve seen how the children have changed for the worse over the years and how their health is waning. They are difficult to instruct and manage. Teachers often spend much of their time supporting students with social/emotional challenges and have little bandwidth left to provide the kind of specialized instruction that will cut through their learning disorders and allow them to access math concepts and literacy. Most classrooms in the U.S. have a large percentage of children who are underperforming academically and suffering from myriad physical and psychological conditions to boot.
I see it with my own eyes when I go to work each day. I am on the front lines of this epidemic. I know that these children are the canaries in the coalmine, showing us that we have done to our environment, our farming practices and our conventional medical paradigm in post-industrialized nations.
From a parent’s point I view, I can say that I totally get it. I’ve mothered two beautiful boys including one with ASD. I’ve step-parented two other wonderful children and learned much from their learning and sensory processing challenges. Boys are 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism and almost twice as likely to receive a diagnosis of ADHD. The journey of raising a youngster with ASD is profound for parents. I have had my eyes opened wide every step of the way. I’ve been willing to go to the ends of the earth to help my own child with ASD thrive with this diagnosis. I can’t put into words what this journey has been like. Now, I can proudly say that my boy holds a college diploma and is one of the most exquisite human beings you will ever meet.
Through these experiences, I’ve personally suffered from extreme stress and adrenal burn-out, Hashimoto’s disease and unrelenting Chronic Fatigue Disorder. I believe that these conditions are all part and parcel of teaching full-time and teaching/parenting special needs children and trying to survive in this world. I had my eye on all of the enticing complementary and alternative therapies out there, but never had the funds to pay those professionals to help myself or my child. It was going to happen on a bare bones budget or not at all.
And so I became a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, trained by the Nutritional Therapy Association. However, I couldn’t leave my position as a class teacher. The kids need me and I know how to move mountains to support them and their learning process. I am bound and determined to teach any student of mine how to read and write at the very least. But they also need healing on a deep level, and I strongly believe that it must happen at the roots, by recovering the health of the digestive system, detoxifying the body and getting kids on whole foods which are appropriate for their unique biology.
This is exactly how I’ve done it for myself. It’s taken true grit and an ocean of patience. Now, I have the tools to help not only my own family access what should be every contemporary human’s right— the knowledge and skills to heal and thrive in this modern, post-industrial society without breaking the bank. No one should have to mortgage out their house or take out huge loans to improve function in their special needs child or upgrade their own health. It can be done even on a shoestring budget right in your very own kitchen.
I am a master teacher. Let me teach you how.
Heidi Martin
